We are so grateful for all of our authors and readers — Tule wouldn’t exist without you. We launched our first book, Tempt Me, Cowboy, on September 8, 2013. Now, on our 6th anniversary, we have over 600 titles and are running full steam ahead to put out more of the books you love!

We thought we’d take a trip down memory lane to look at some of the fun times we’ve had on our journey so far. Thank you all!

Tule author Robin Bielman took some time to answer questions about her second book in her American Royalty series, Sweet Talker.

For this series, what inspired you to put the perspective in first-person?
I love reading books written in first person and so when I came up with the idea to write about three close-knit brothers, I couldn’t wait to really get inside their heads. I’m a pantser, meaning I don’t plot very much, and so I’m always following my character’s lead and having the book unfold through Ethan and Pascale’s eyes was lots of fun.

How did Pascale and Ethan meet during that “incredible summer”?
They met on a beach in Hawaii (of my favorite places!). Pascale was playing frisbee with her best friend and Ethan was tossing a football with his friend. She lunged for a catch at the same time Ethan dove for one, and they bumped into each other—literally. Ethan, being the charming and confident twenty-two-year-old that he was said, “Crash here often?” And that was the start of an unforgettable summer.

If Pascale had to wait tables, could she do it?
Absolutely! She wouldn’t hesitate to jump in where needed. Funny story — I’ve never been a waitress, but I’ve had lots of dreams about being one. And I’m always terrible at it, messing up orders and being totally flustered! LOL Pascale would rock waiting tables.

Is there a celebrity you envisioned when you were writing Ethan?Yes! So, one of my favorite actors is Luke MacFarlane. He’s been in several Hallmark Channel movies, but he’s also one of the lead actors on Killjoys on the SyFy Network and I love him! Here’s a picture! *sigh*

What are you currently reading?
I’m currently reading Stranded and Seduced by Charlene Sands. It’s so good! Romantic and sweet and super fun with a fake engagement and amnesia tropes. There’s also some enemies to lovers action between the hero, Risk, and heroine, April, which adds some great sexual tension. I’m dying to see how everything is resolved!

About the Author

Robin Bielman is the USA Today bestselling author of over fifteen novels. When not attached to her laptop, she loves to read, go to the beach, frequent coffee shops, and spend time with her husband and two sons.

Her fondness for swoon-worthy heroes who flirt and stumble upon the girl they can’t live without jumpstarts most of her story ideas. She writes with a steady stream of caffeine nearby and the best dog on the planet, Harry, by her side. She also dreams of traveling to faraway places and loves to connect with readers. To keep in touch, sign up for her newsletter on her website! www.robinbielman.com

Tule author Madeline Ash took some time to discuss her second book in the The Morgan Sisters series, His Billionaire Bride.

Who is Edwin’s favorite artist?His idol, David Bowie. “He is everything,” Edwin says about him. Bowie’s creativity, aesthetic, and humility aside, Edwin is also drawn to the musician’s fluid representation of identity. It’s complicated, authentic, and undefinable. In a world of categorization, Bowie always suggested a different way of being. Identity that is as untouchable as a final guitar chord—and just as magical.

What is Carrie’s prized possession?As a self-made billionaire, Carrie lives in a luxury penthouse with the financial freedom to acquire anything her heart desires. But her heart only cares for one thing—the health and well-being of her family.

Is there an actor you would want to play Edwin?I would love a younger Eddie Redmayne. Not only would he look the part, but he’s adept at nuance, so would be able to capture Edwin’s unique blend of strength, compassion, vivaciousness and vulnerability.

What is (Carrie’s sister) Emmie’s favorite movie and why?Tough question! Emmie’s favorite movie will have changed from before the events of The Wedding Obsession (The Morgan Sisters book #1) due to *spoilers*. In the past, it would have been something thought-provoking like Ex Machina or The Truman Show. Now, it’s much more likely to be Return to Me—a movie with a heart transplant patient heroine and a gorgeous romance!

What are you currently reading?A couple of things. I often pair romance with young adult fiction, so am reading Obsidio, a gripping and compelling YA sci-fi by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff (it’s SO good!) as well as How to Blow It with a Billionaire, a quirky and queer erotic romance by one of my all-time favorite authors, Alexis Hall.

About the Author

Madeline Ash is an Australian contemporary romance author and two-time RITA Award finalist. She has won Australia’s Romantic Book of the Year award (RUBY). She delves deep into the hearts and minds of her characters, creating flawed and compassionate leads—who are always rewarded with a happy ending.

GIVEAWAY: We will pick ONE winner to receive a digital book of their choice from the September releases. Comment down below saying which book you’re looking most forward to reading! Giveaway is open INTERNATIONALLY. The winner will be randomly selected at the end of the month.

Tule author Justine Davis took a moment to discuss her latest release set in Last Stand, Texas, Lone Star Nights.

How does Slater integrate his Ivy League education into his bartending?Since his degree is in philosophy, he looks at people from that perspective. He’s always that half-step back, observing, and tends to categorize people in that way. People in all their varied types intrigue him, and he is fascinated when someone is a dichotomy, philosophically. He likes to draw them out to get them to see the conflict and see if they cling to it or change.

There definitely some history there, how did Slater and Joey first meet?
Joey was fourteen when she first saw Slater at the Last Stand Bluebonnet Festival, when she was doing a story reading at the library booth. (her career path was set early on!) When she finished she looked up and saw him, and he told her it was the best telling of that story he’d ever heard. She fell for him like the proverbial ton of bricks, but was mostly in awe and a little bit afraid, since he was an “older man.” (He was eighteen) And unfortunately for Joey’s tender heart, he was there waiting for her glamorous older sister. And that is a shadow she has trouble stepping out of.

Slater and Joey have such great dialogue. What inspired you to write it?I’ve always collected quotations, from serious to funny. Sometimes the quotes themselves are meaningful, some are meaningful—or funny—when you consider who said them. So when I threw these two together, she being a librarian, and him a constant reader, somewhere along the line they fell into conversing in quotations, and trying to trip each other up on knowing the source. I used several from my collection for the book, but some of my favorites didn’t quite fit. For instance:

Wise men speak when they have something to say, fools speak because they have to say something. ~Aristotle

Some people die at 25 and aren’t buried until 75. ~Ben Franklin

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity. ~George S. Patton

Searching is half the fun: life is much more manageable when thought of as a scavenger hunt as opposed to a surprise party. ~Jimmy Buffett

Words fascinate me. They always have. For me, browsing in a dictionary is like being turned loose in a bank. ~Eddie Cantor (this one is truly me!)

Not everything that counts can be counted. Not everything that can be counted, counts. ~Albert Einstein

There’s more treasure in books than all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island. Best of all, you can enjoy these riches every day of your life. ~Walt Disney

Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind. ~Rudyard Kipling

And one of my all time favorites: You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. ~Wayne Gretzky

What is the fastest way to ruffle Joey’s feathers?
Compare her to her beautiful, glamorous, and utterly self-serving older sister. Joey has lived in her shadow all her life, and she’s tired of it. And that Slater was engaged to that sister first makes her doubt…everything.

What are you currently reading?
Besides keeping up with the Last Stand authors, I’ve been on a Regency binge for some reason (probably having recently discovered Darcy Burke!). But it’s been interrupted to re-read the brilliant Nalini Singh’s Archangel’s Prophecy in preparation for the next book, Archangel’s War coming next month. (That noise you hear is me champing at the bit…) There are not many authors I reread, but she is definitely one. I’m in awe of her world building and Raphael is the most incredible hero ever created in romance.

About the Author

Author of more than 70 books, (she sold her first ten in less than two years) Justine Davis is a five time winner of the coveted RWA RITA Award, including for being inducted into the RWA Hall of Fame. A fifteen time nominee for RT Book Review awards, she has won four times, received three of their lifetime achievement awards, and had four titles on the magazine’s 200 Best of all Time list. Her books have appeared on national best seller lists, including USA Today. She has been featured on CNN, taught at several national and international conferences, and at the UCLA writer’s program.

After years of working in law enforcement, and more years doing both, Justine now writes full time. She lives near beautiful Puget Sound in Washington State, peacefully coexisting with deer, bears, a pair of bald eagles, a tailless raccoon, and her beloved ’67 Corvette roadster. When she’s not writing, taking photographs, or driving said roadster (and yes, it goes very fast) she tends to her knitting. Literally.

Tule author Mel Teshco took a moment to talk about her new release, Highest Bid.

What would you notice first if you stepped into the Black Pearl Nightclub?
People everywhere! The Black Pearl Nightclub is extremely popular. You’d also notice a stage for bands and other acts, a long bar and a big dance floor. Everything about the nightclub is modern and trendy. It also has a beautiful Garden Café upstairs along with two function rooms.

Galan is immediately attracted to Layla. What is he drawn to most?
Galan knows women, he recognizes the beauty beneath Layla’s glasses and her men’s uniform. But more than that, he admires her courage and her spirit, and knows from personal experience how much effort it takes to present a normal façade to the world. She’s a fighter and he loves that in her.

Which actor would play Galan in a movie?
I’ve chosen Eduardo Verastegui as the hero in my story. He’s got that certain mysterious look about him. And of course the ladies would love him.

Layla is a bartender/server currently. What is her dream job?
She didn’t really know what she wanted beyond have a stable and secure job at the nightclub. It was only when she did some work behind the scenes and as a waitress at the many wedding receptions inside the function rooms that she realized something in that industry was her calling.

What are you currently reading?
I’m reading Real by Katy Evans. The hero Remington Tate is a fighter in the ring who has earned his bad boy reputation long before he meets the heroine Brooke, who is hired as a sports therapist to keep his body working like a well-oiled machine. My goodness the sexual tension is off the charts!! It’s a seriously great read.

About the AuthorMel Teshco is an award winning, Amazon best selling author with a love for the written word, along with a short attention span that sees her juggling a variety of genres and heat levels in her stories. From contemporary to paranormal, inspirational to erotic, she hopes there’s a little of something for every reader out there to enjoy.

Her gypsy-like upbringing saw her living in many places along Australia’s east coast. Each new home stimulated an already over-active imagination, where she spent as much time dreaming about fantasy worlds as the real world – the fantasy sometimes being much better.

Now living on a beautiful rural property with views of the mountains keeping her two horses, three cats and one hyperactive Belgian shepherd happy, she is happily married to Mr Patience, and adores her three children and two grandchildren.

New Tule author Rebecca Crowley sat down to chat with us about her first installment in the London Phoenix series, Insider.

You delve into two pretty complicated industries: Journalism and Medicine. What kind of research did you have to do?
Being honest, I cheated on the journalist front – I’m married to one! But having a peripheral view of the fast-paced news industry for more than a decade now is what inspired me to write about it. There aren’t many jobs where people constantly try to balance profitability with serving the public interest, which is what journalism so compelling.

I guess the same could be said about medicine, which is something I have zero exposure to (English major, hello!) yet it fascinates me. I recently realized that Grace is the third heroine I’ve written with a medical background (I have an orthopedic surgeon and a clinical psychologist in two novellas). I haven’t quite figured out the reasoning behind this yet – maybe I like the idea of the otherwise strong, capable female healer needing to heal herself as well? Either way, I have to admit that my scientific knowledge doesn’t extend much past a teenage devotion to the show ER!

Oren and his brothers buy the London Phoenix — what this the name of the newspaper before they bought it or is it symbolic?
They kept the Phoenix’s name, but it is also symbolic of the paper’s long and storied life as a broadsheet.

We find out Grace’s exes are bad news. In the past, was Oren more often times the dumper or the dumped?
Oren would only really consider himself as having had one capital-R Relationship, which his ex-girlfriend Natalie. She ended things with him which I suppose puts him more firmly in the dumpee category, but the truth is he’s steered well clear of ever being half of anything that could be considered a relationship since then.

Is there any particular incident growing up that drove Grace to pursue emergency medicine?
Perhaps surprisingly for someone otherwise fairly level-headed, the unpredictability and spontaneity of emergency medicine is what attracted Grace. And scratching the surface, it’s possible that she liked the relatively low commitment inherent in emergency medicine, as opposed to a specialism with long-term patient care. Just like she hesitates to confront her relationship with her father, in emergency medicine she doesn’t have to work on building or maintaining long relationships with her patients – she can patch them up and ship them off.

What are you currently reading?

OUTLANDER – SEASON 4 – EPISODE 401

For the last couple of summers I’ve started reading Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series so that I’m caught up ahead of the next season when it airs on Starz in the fall (I have a thing about reading the book before seeing the film or TV adaptation!). Per tradition I’m spending 1400 pages of my summer with Jamie and Claire and at the moment I’m about halfway through The Fiery Cross.

About the Author

Rebecca Crowley inherited her love of romance from her mom, who taught her to at least partially judge a book by the steaminess of its cover. She writes contemporary romance with smart heroines and swoon-worthy heroes, and never tires of the happily-ever-after. Having pulled up her Kansas roots to live in New York City, London and Johannesburg, Rebecca currently resides in Houston.

One staple of Southern living is sweet tea. Summer is the perfect time for an ice-cold glass, and my characters in the Texas BBQ Brothers series know this. Tea makes a sideline appearance several times in the small town duet series ON THE MARKET and OFF THE MARKET. It’s served as a regular menu item in The Hut, the BBQ restaurant owned by my heroes, the Hutchinson brothers. Patrons can’t get enough of them—and their sweet tea!

But making sweet tea doesn’t require a complicated contraption or special ingredients. Here’s the perfect way to turn the heat of summer into a reason to make sun tea at home.

The Hut’s Recipe for Sweet Sun Tea

1) Choose a pitcher or glass container.

2) Fill with 2 quarts room temperature water.

3) Dunk 2 family size tea bags of any variety black tea inside.

4) Cover the container and set in a sunny location for 2-3 hours.

5) Discard tea bags.

6) Add 1/2 – 2/3 cup pure cane sugar. Stir until dissolved.

7) Refrigerate until cool.

Note: Do NOT immediately add ice, as that will weaken the tea. Once the tea has cooled in the refrigerator, then ice can be used as you pour yourself a tall glass.

Have any lemon, lime, or mint leaves? Add some for a dash of extra flavor.

As the dog days of summer stretch on, stay cool! There’s still plenty of time to read, and plenty of time to enjoy a glass of sweet sun tea while you do!

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Like this? Want more recipes? Each book in the Texas BBQ Brothers series contains four original recipes in the back, ranging from BBQ brisket to corn casserole to peach cobbler. Savor the flavor of small town Texas by grabbing your copy today!

August is Romance Awareness Month, so what better excuse to stock up on some lovely romance reads? The Tule team handpicked some titles we know you’ll LOVE and that will definitely add some romance to your summer!

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